Texas Hold'em Rules

The basic rules for playing Texas Hold’em Poker are easy to learn. While becoming a great player will take hours of study and play, we have to start somewhere do we not? After learning the basics, be sure to read over our Texas Hold’em Strategy section and browse and ask questions in our forums to begin down the road to becoming a solid player. Finally, it is assumed that the reader knows the basic terms and definitions used in poker. If not, you can always check our terms pokerss glossary for clarification.

The Dealer Chip

The dealer chip moves clockwise around the table after each hand, and is a very important part of the game because it signifies your position. Since Texas Hold’em is a “fixed postion” game, you will want to always pay attention to who is “on the button,” as it is often referred to. At the very beginning of a game or tournament, to determine who gets the privelege of being “on the button” first, the most common method is to deal everyone a card, with the highest ranking card being the dealer.

The Small Blind and Big Blind

Rather than use antes to get the action started in Texas Hold’em, we use what are called “the blinds.” These are placed into the pot before any cards are dealt, thus they are “blind bets,” putting money into the pot without knowing what will be dealt. Before the cards are dealt, the person to the immediate left of the dealer puts in the small blind. The small blind is generally equal to half of the big blind. The player immediately to the left of the small blind is required to put in the big blind. The big blind is generally equal to the small bet of the limit being played. For example if you were playing / limit hold’em, the big blind would be and the small blind .I should point out that blind amounts are completely arbitrary. Some games even feature blinds and antes, or only one blind. When organizing your home game realize that the more money in the pot before cards are dealt, the more hotly contested each pot will be. David Sklansky, a popular and revered poker author notes that poker begins as a battle for the blinds and antes. Obviously then, the smaller the blinds, the less there is to battle for.

For more rules and strategies and eveything you could need to learn poker please have a look at Poker Gratis.